MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. Russian Defense Ministry has issued a report on a forthcoming expansion of the national orbital grouping of the space echelon of the Missile Attack Warning System (MAWS).

"The launch of the first spacecraft of the new generation has been scheduled for the second half of 2015," a spokesman for the ministry said. "The satellite will be taken into orbit by the Soyuz launch vehicle."

He indicated that the Angara carrier rocket would not be used for this particular launch, since the Angara’s next mission had already been planned for 2016.

"There are no gaps in the MAWS orbital grouping and there will never be," the spokesman said. "The new-generation satellites have a number of distinct features, like an extended service life and the performance characteristics that are better by a factor of several times."

The satellites have been created on a new component base designed and manufactured in Russia. "Just one satellite in the new family will be able to replace several five or six satellites of the previous generation."

"Simultaneously, we’re developing the ground-based elements of the MAWS through the commissioning of new radars of a high degree of factory-gate operational readiness, the spokesman said. "Both echelons will continue performing the previous tasks but doing so at a new level of quality and along a radically overhauled pattern."

Along with it, the space-based and ground-based components of the system will be functioning in maximum coordination with each other and will complement each other mutually.

The data they will be receiving will then be reported to the MAWS command center and then to, to the National Center for Control over State Defense.

The commander of Russia’s Aerospace Defense Force, Gen Alexander Golovko, said somewhat earlier that the military authorities hoped to begin the unfolding of the first stage of the Integrated Space System as of 2015 and this would help ensure the capability to control the areas with a high risk of missile attacks round the clock.

The US has announced plans to reject the deployment of the fourth stage of the missile defense system in Europe and to refocus towards protection against potential North Korea missile attacks. Infographics by TASS